Fortnite Is Coming to Linux With Rebuilt Anti-Cheat
Epic Games has confirmed Fortnite is coming to Linux, with a rebuilt Easy Anti-Cheat system and a native Linux preview of the Epic Games Launcher for players.
Fortnite on Linux is now a confirmed plan, after years in which the game stayed off the platform because of anti-cheat concerns. Epic Games announced on 14 October that it is rebuilding Easy Anti-Cheat for Linux as EAC Linux v2, and that Fortnite will be the first game to test the new system in a live environment. The same day, Epic released a preview of a rebuilt Epic Games Launcher that runs natively on Linux for the first time, alongside Windows and macOS. The launcher supports Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or newer, Fedora 43 or newer, and Debian 12 or newer on 64-bit hardware, with 4GB of memory and 2GB of storage.
The new anti-cheat design is different from the Windows version. EAC Linux v2 does not install or load a kernel module. Instead, it uses Linux security features, including Secure Boot, TPM 2.0, a signed kernel, kernel lockdown, and IOMMU, plus a systemd service and eBPF programs that run only while a protected game is open. Epic says the system checks the keys behind the boot chain against a list of recognised keys, covering Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Universal Blue distributions. The goal is to give Linux players a similar level of protection against cheating as Windows players receive, without the same kind of low-level software.
Fortnite on Linux still has no release date
Fortnite on Linux will arrive through the new Epic Games Launcher, but only once EAC Linux v2 works with enough distribution maintainers, the people who package and configure each Linux version. Epic has not given a date, and engineering director Rick Deist told The Verge there is no timeline yet. The Steam Deck does not currently meet the requirements for EAC Linux v2, although Epic says it is talking with Valve and hopes to support it later. Epic also says it does not plan to bring Fortnite to the Steam store. For Linux gamers, the announcement is still a major step: a native launcher is available to try now, the anti-cheat plan is public and detailed, and the path to playing Fortnite on Linux is clearer than it has ever been.
Source: LinuxStans
